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Monday, June 24, 2013

Even as I said it, I knew my sister would barely buy the flimsy excuse. Kathryn looked at me with a strange expression on her vacay-tanned
face and cocked her head. “Really?”

“Yeah, yeah… I’ll buy a drink or something.”

My youngest sister Grace chimed in quickly. “Oh my gosh, I’m
coming too. I can’t believe you talked to him!” We ran off toward our condo’s
outdoor bar, looking like idiots—but we were out of options.

The awkward exit left Kathryn alone with her (uncharacteristically
nervous) boyfriend, Hector.

“We’ll catch up to you!” I called back over my shoulder.
They were already walking toward the quiet beach, with its imminent sunset.

Good.

Grace and I ducked behind a column near the bar. We waited
there for a few minutes, got questioned by an excitable security guard, and then
headed to the outdoor courtyard where our semi-stressed parents were setting up
tea light candles.

So far, the Fitzgerald family collective plus Hector and
company had faked a condo rental, improvised a nerve-wracking dinner, and planned a surprise post-engagement party for a somewhat suspicious Kathryn.
There had been a few hiccups (“No! You can’t keep the ring in your pocket… I
SEE IT.”) but, overall, I was impressed with the family’s ability to remain
nonchalant.

Detaching from Kathryn was always going to be the most difficult
part of Mission Engagement. When the sisters are finally together, in one place, at the same time, we
don’t often separate. It was relatively easy for
the parents to slip away and sign fake condo papers with a fake realtor named “Anna”…
but Grace and I were trapped.

So there we were, pretending I had a prepubescent crush on a
bartender probably three years my junior. Whatever. We were almost in the
clear, and I knew that ring was practically jumping out of Hector’s pocket.

But it couldn’t.

The ring needed to stay hidden at least another 30 minutes.

“DO NOT COME BACK UNTIL 8:45,” I texted him. Then I
imagined poor Hec looking at his phone, and breaking into a second monologue
about what life would be like together. (I later discovered he already had a
fabulous speech prepared. His dilly-dallying was instead in watching the sun fully set and walking back toward the
condo very casually.)

Horrible
traffic on I-95 had delayed almost all of our guests, so only about 9 out of 20
were present. But even as I frantically typed on my phone, cars zoomed into the complex and disheveled friends began running toward our "Best Wishes" decorations.

By the time Kathryn and Hector had arrived—giddy and
relived, respectively—nearly everything was in its place. The night turned into
a happy celebration of the married couple to-be.

And I, for one, couldn’t be more excited.

The Fitzgerald girls will finally have a brother. We will be
more complete as a family, and Kathryn more complete as the beautiful
individual she has become. Giving away your younger sister is a difficult
endeavor, especially if you’re raised the way we were. But Hector is already
someone who understands our family, someone who actually can keep up (and put up) with the excitable,
endearing, and at times overwhelming Fitzgeralds.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Let me explain this fact further: I am
literally over-stimulated from May to September, as warmth and excitement
blankets our city. The constant need to move, move, move and bounce from one
thing to the next grows in humid weather, like metal expanding in the hot,
sticky sun.

So yes.

The blog has been silent these
last several weeks.

But I’ve been out of town!

And I needed to play in the resurrected, summer sun!

< Insert numerous excuses with
dramatic punctuation here! >

It’s also worth mentioning that my
current job has me writing and editing streams of exclamation point and
emdash-filled paragraphs for most of the day. Obviously I love what I do, but
I’m rarely enthused to rush home to my computer—you wouldn’t be either
(emdash!).

Still, I opened up that daunting white,
blank Word Doc tonight because summer has already started; stories are continuously unfolding; New York keeps turning whether I want to write about it or not.

And then I remembered.

(After some poking and prodding…)

I do
want to record this city’s narrative—and our narratives—even if it means finding
the time at 3AM to jot down an idea, or type up that ever-elusive prequel to a
“brilliant” thought. As E.B. White once said, when talking about New York City
no less, “[C]reation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and
small distractions.”

Hey, you.

One of you special 400 to 500 who still read
this dusty ol’ blog.

Don’t let me forget what I just typed.

*****

The conquering of summer has already started! Here's what's been happening in my neck of the woods:

About the Blog

Two years ago, I made my way to New York City. Currently I'm working at The Huffington Post, writing for their Tech & Social Media vertical. This blog will chronicle my adventures for friends, family, & anyone else who happens by.

WHY the WHY?

"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life."